Xi Jinping Biden talked on the phone again after a lapse of July, lasting 90 minutes to discuss how to avoid conflict-BBC News

Sino-US relations are at their lowest point in decades. This is the first call between Biden and Xi Jinping since the Chinese New Year on February 11. After Biden took office as President of the United States, the leaders of China and the United States only had two telephone conversations.

CBS and NPR quoted a senior government official as saying that the call was initiated by Biden.

Reuters said the call lasted about 90 minutes. White House officials said that the focus of the call was on economic topics, climate change, and the new crown epidemic.

The White House statement stated that this discussion is part of the ongoing efforts of the United States to “responsibly manage” the competition between the two countries.

“President Biden emphasized the U.S.’s continued concern for peace, stability, and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region and the world. The two leaders discussed the responsibilities of the two countries to ensure that competition does not fall into conflict.”

According to Chinese official media reports, Xi Jinping stated that “the U.S. policy towards China has caused serious difficulties in Sino-U.S. relations.” Today the international community is facing many common problems. China and the U.S. should push bilateral relations back to the “correct track of stable development” as soon as possible. Benefit the two peoples.

CCTV News stated that Biden stated that there is no reason for the two countries to fall into conflict due to competition. The US has never intended to change the one-China policy.

According to Chinese sources, the two sides agreed to continue to maintain regular contact in various ways in the future.

The National Public Radio (NPR) and other media quoted a cabinet official of the Biden administration as saying that the call stemmed from the US government’s disappointment that lower-level officials in China were unwilling to engage in “serious or substantive dialogue”.

After Xi Jinping and Biden spoke in February of this year, senior officials from China and the United States had some contacts, but the results were minimal.

In March of this year, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan held talks in Alaska with China’s Politburo member Yang Jiechi, who is in charge of foreign affairs, and Foreign Minister Wang Yi. The two sides engaged in a verbal confrontation in front of the media.

In July of this year, US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman visited Tianjin. During the talks, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng’s language was also full of confrontation.

On September 2, the U.S. climate envoy John Kerry visited China to engage with China on the issue of climate change. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that the continued deterioration of US-China relations may affect future bilateral cooperation on climate issues. In the current environment of US-China relations, it is impossible to upgrade the climate cooperation between the two countries.

CBS pointed out in a call report about Biden and Xi Jinping that the White House official said that the previous contacts between the two sides were “not fruitful” and that the Chinese officials were only “reading the key points to behave in front of their superiors” during the contact. “, and they don’t have the ability to really negotiate. Biden was dissatisfied with this, so he asked for this direct dialogue.

The official said that the call is a test. Given Xi Jinping’s consolidation of power, the purpose of this time is to test whether the highest-level dialogue will be more effective.

Since the trade war, differences between China and the United States in areas such as human rights and democracy have continued to widen.

The US government accuses China of genocide against Uighurs in Xinjiang, and accuses Beijing of suppressing Hong Kong’s democratic rights and suppressing dissidents through measures such as the promulgation of the National Security Law.

The two sides also often collide on issues such as the South China Sea and Taiwan. The Chinese government has repeatedly accused the United States of interfering in China’s internal affairs. After the Biden administration came to power, China also accused the United States of using values ​​to “engage in group confrontation.”

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris (He Jinli) criticized Beijing’s claims of sovereignty over most of the South China Sea during a visit to Singapore last month. She said that Beijing’s proposition is based on intimidation and coercion. It not only violates the ruling made by the International Arbitration Tribunal in 2016, but also threatens the sovereignty of some countries.

US warships have also entered the South China Sea several times this year to perform freedom of navigation operations. The most recent incident occurred on September 8, when the US Seventh Fleet claimed that the guided missile destroyer USS Benfold was operating within 12 nautical miles of Mischief Reef in the South China Sea. The Chinese Ministry of National Defense stated that China organized naval and air forces to track and monitor them and warned them to leave.

The U.S. government has stated that after withdrawing its troops from Afghanistan, the U.S. will have more resources and energy to invest in the Indo-Pacific region, especially in competition with China.

On the other hand, the Group of Twenty (G20) leaders’ meeting will be held in Rome, Italy at the end of October this year. During this period, whether Xi Jinping will attend and whether he will meet with Biden is the focus of many analysts of Sino-US relations.